


Fax it Straight to his Heart

by Tobiroth



Series: Cloud's Birthday Week 2k15 [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 04:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4549905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobiroth/pseuds/Tobiroth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud Strife is a new intern at Shinra Electric and Power.  It’s miserable.  His duties include giving that one guy Heidegger from Marketing a back rub, running coffee, managing the company’s social media, and delivering sappy love letters between the heads of four of the main departments.  Things get very bad, and then a whole lot better. ASGZC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fax it Straight to his Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This is part 1 of 9 of my 'Cloud's Birthday Week 2k15' challenge over on tumblr. :)

 

On a drizzly March day, not uncommon at all in Midgar, Sephiroth's morning was average.

The breakfast sandwich he ordered from a cafe each morning en route to work had some extra hot, bubbling cheese, which was nice. The traffic lights were almost all green too, which was very nice indeed. Unfortunately he was stuck in the elevator for twenty floors with one detestable Barnaby Hojo, and although the man did not look at him the sound of his slightly-raspy breathing and the reflection of the harsh fluorescents off his glasses combined to be a horrible enough experience that it dropped Sephiroth's rather nice early-morning into something just about utterly...average.

As head of Development at Shinra Electric and Power Company Sephiroth's hours were packed and long. A tall stack of forms awaited him in his mailbox upon arriving on his floor and he leafed through it with a disdainful sigh. His schedule, slipped under his door just before closing the night before by Luxiere, told him that many of the next few hours were meetings with people he abhorred. On the other hand, these meetings were often catered, and Sephiroth had stress-eaten enough pastries and bagels in his time here to become something of a connoisseur.

He sat at his desk and, before booting up his computer and beginning his flood of emails he had to send before his meeting in twenty minutes, pulled out his phone. He sent three identical texts, awkwardly tapping each individual button because as much as he had reluctantly learned how to type on his computer at a reasonable pace texting was still beyond him:  _Good morning._

Messages sent, he got down to business.

Now, people came in and out of his office all the time; he was a busy man. Rude dropped off some notes for a meeting after lunch, Tseng stood in the doorway for five minutes too long and chatted with him, avoiding his own work, and a short intern moseyed in with a cup of coffee and a piece of folded paper printed with tiny ducks, which he placed on the desk.

"Thank you," Sephiroth said blandly without looking at him, transfixed by his computer screen.

"You're welcome," the man replied, and left.

Sephiroth picked up the note as he left to head for one of the conference rooms. It was a letter in Zack's scribbly handwriting.

 _My dearest, sweetest, handsomest lover,_  
_Your 'good morning' message half an hour ago filled me with great joy. I was in that most smelly bathroom on the lobby floor at the time but my heart gave out such radiant bursts of happiness that I hardly noticed how foul it always is. I have employed the services of this young, poor intern to deliver this courting message to my beloved. Please, Sephiroth, will you be mine?_  
_xoxo_  
_YO SEPH. Actually, I was thinking about your boo-tay on the way to work this morning and now I kinda want to fuck you on my desk before I have to spend hours in the same room with Scarlet at one. You down for a quickie?_  
_Love,  
_ _Zack_

The message was… crude at best, and undeniably Zack Fair. Sephiroth folded the note and slid it into his back pocket. He called his secretary as he jogged down three flights of stairs to where he was needed.

"Luxiere," he said, "Reschedule my 12:00 with Hollander. Something came up."

The next few hours went fine. Seeing Zack in his office was a joy. He spent his lunch break afterward with Angeal and Genesis and he was filled in on the latest gossip, namely that there was a raccoon at Angeal's house outside the city.

"Does it have rabies?" Sephiroth asked, fascinated.

Angeal just shrugged, but Genesis griped, "It probably does. Demented thing kept me up all night."

They chatted for a little while and Sephiroth pawned off his salad's cherry tomatoes on Angeal. Genesis was late for some appointment and left early, kissing them both goodbye before heading off. When Sephiroth finally returned to his office an hour and a half later, after another meeting, Luxiere was nervously pacing around in front of his door.

"Sephiroth," he said when he arrived, "I glanced at our twitter page, and you might want to check it out."

He pulled it up on his computer and saw a string of strange, rambly tweets, including:

_@ShinraElec: Happy Thursday, Midgar! Let's see what's up in our office this morning. We're fairly sure the rain has caused three spills outside our front door. Be careful out there today._

_@ShinraElec: The bagels for the 10am meeting about our new energy-efficiency programs (which you can read about here: xxx-ShinraElectric .gaia/goinggreen) have been dropped in the hallway._

_@ShinraElec: More on the bagel disaster of 20XX to come. Who was in charge of this? #ElectricityPuns_

_@ShinraElec: Love is in the air at Shinra! We have a cupid in the halls tasked with delivering romantic notes this morning. Who makes your heart jolt? #ElectricityPuns_

Attached to the last tweet was a picture of a folded piece of paper with ducks on it. His letter from Zack.

Sephiroth's morning was just about average, but his afternoon quickly spiraled into mediocrity.

* * *

Genesis was unhappy. "Fuck nature," he griped, throttling the steering wheel like it was the neck of a certain scavenging animal.

Beside him, and bundled up in his raincoat because he was careful like that, Angeal sighed. "We're in the suburbs, Gen, not the wilderness."

"I don't care. Fuck it."

He complained about the raccoon that had kept him up all night the whole way into town. When they eventually reached the lobby they split up into different elevators, due to going in different directions, and Angeal seemed only too pleased to get away from him.

"Hey," Genesis barked, staring at Angeal's back as he hurried away. The man stopped still and turned around, sheepishly coming back to him. Genesis leaned up into his space and gave him a lingering, affectionate smooch, ignoring the way frantic people pushed past them on all sides. "Have a good day, pretty," he cooed.

"You too Gen. See you at lunch."

Angeal got the lift up to Budget and Finances and Genesis went down into the depths of the basement—the asscrack of the building, he liked to say—to Research. As head of the department he was in charge of over a hundred top-notch scientists, all developing ways to better bring clean and affordable energy to the populace.

He wasn't feeling it today, however, and shut himself in his office as soon as he arrived. There were plenty of people just below him that would handle it. He sat back in his chair, put up his feet, and stretched. His phone beeped with a text from Sephiroth,  _Good morning_ , and he smiled.

 _Morning lovely,_ he sent back, followed by a bunch of hearts.

Eventually he turned on his computer and grudgingly did some work. The amount of emails he received every day was absurd, and they were almost all dull. Sometimes Genesis questioned why he had become so blastedly passionate about science. A time later, around his tenth email response or so, a knock came at his door.

"Come in," Genesis droned.

In came a person with the purple 'intern' badge pinned to their chest, and after glancing over for long enough to see that he went back to his screen. "Yes?" he grunted, typing out a reply to Hojo. He included a few typos because he knew they would irritate the man.

"Uh, hi. I have a letter for you from Zack Fair." There came the soft sound of a paper fluttering down to his desk and Genesis nodded.

"Thanks."

"…Do you need anything?"

"Hm. Get me a coffee from the café in the lobby, would you?" Genesis relayed his usual order and handed over his Shinra ID without looking.

The card was not taken, and Genesis abruptly slid his chair to the side, alarmed, as the intern came around the desk and into his space. They opened his top desk drawer and rooted around for a second, ignoring the pile of condoms to the left, until they located a post-it. There was the click of a pen and then that soft, masculine voice apologized, "I am  _so_  sorry. I just didn't understand a word of whatever the hell you just said."

Another pause. "I'm sorry again. I shouldn't have cursed. It's been a long morning."

Genesis raised his eyebrows and finally fixed his attention on the other.

"Aren't you a little old to be an intern?"

His visitor was a quite handsome, striking blond, though he was considerably less so with his face scrunched up in displeasure. "Yes," he grunted, "I'm a grad student. Started college late." He then continued, venting, "This is my third day, and I have no idea what a palazzo is."

"Huh." Genesis frowned, surveying him. He repeated his order, more slowly, with the man scribbling everything down. The blond looked up when he was done, his jaw set in either anger or misery.

"Buy yourself something," sighed Genesis as the intern finally took his ID, "There are funds pre-loaded onto my card that they accept at all the eateries in the building. Just don't take too long; I'm getting withdrawal shakes."

The man nodded, mystified, and left. Genesis watched him go, snorted to himself, and attended to his letter from Zack. It was handwritten on the duck-printed paper he got when Kadaj quit and stormed out last month, leaving everything in his desk up for grabs.

 _Genesis,_ it read,  
_I just wanted to tell you that I love you so so so so much, so here's a letter.  
__Actually Cloud had nothing to do & looked lost so I told him to deliver some letters to you guys to take up some time. I do love you so so so much, though! But Cloud! Poor thing! I have a meeting at 1 so would you mind babysitting him for me during that time? I know you don't actually ever do any work, so… _Here Zack drew a smiling face with its tongue sticking out.  _I'll make it worth your while though.  
__See you tonight probably,  
__Zack xoxo_

The head of Research clicked his tongue at the note and responded via text ( _yeah sure Ill watch the kid. enjoy your meeting)_ , then turned back to his endless supply of urgent emails until the intern came back.

He had Genesis's coffee, which he placed carefully on the desk, and some sort of canned energy drink the café sold in his other hand.

"Not a coffee drinker?"

"Never got used to the taste."

Genesis cut the small talk. "I would like you to report here at one o'clock. In the meantime, I want you to pay Angeal Hewley a visit for me." He whipped out his own stationery, simple paper in calm, soothing periwinkle, and bent over it as he wrote a note in orderly cursive. When done he folded the note in half and then in half again, passing it over.

"He is the head of Budget and Finance, thirty-third floor.  _Don't read it_." He paused for dramatic effect. "I will see you promptly at one."

With a nod and a polite thank-you for the drink the man—apparently  _Cloud_ —left.

At 12:30 he left to eat lunch with Angeal, and covered the man's face with kisses as soon as he saw him. "Did you enjoy my letter?"

"I did. You're terrible."

"I know. That poor boy though. He looked miserable."

"I don't suppose I blame him. He looked worse this morning; he actually paid me a visit earlier."

"Did Zack write you a letter too?"

"Mm."

They both concurred that Zack was, although a little strange, the cutest little shit around. Conversation eventually shifted to the Investigations branch and what they were all doing; the rumors just flew about Reno, Elena, Tseng, and their peers. Sephiroth came in close to one looking familiarly disheveled and satisfied.

"I take it you got a love letter from Zackary too," Genesis deadpanned. Sephiroth just looked smug, and gingerly sat down in his chair.

Angeal brought up the gaia-fucking-awful raccoon again and Genesis complained about it some more, poking at the nonexistent bags under his eyes and declaring that he was hideous. The other two assured him he wasn't anything of the sort and Genesis basked in the compliments.

"It's 1:15," the redhead said eventually, "I was supposed to meet someone fifteen minutes ago." With some last smooches and promises to see them later on Genesis meandered back to his office. He could picture the Cloud boy waiting for him, that face twisted into another pretty pout. Genesis did not do anything early, however—he was waited  _on_ , not the other way around. He could care less if he inconvenienced an intern.

Sure enough when he reached his office about twenty-five minutes after he was supposed to the blond was sitting cross-legged on the carpet against his door. His eyes were closed and he looked asleep. When Genesis neared him, however, he stirred and looked upwards.

"You said 'promptly at one,'" he accused.

Genesis just shrugged. "I did, didn't I." He nudged the man to the side with his foot, tapping his shined shoe against a rather bony hip. Cloud scuttled sideways like a crab enough for Genesis to get the door open with his key. Stuck to the door near the peephole was a post-it that he pulled off curiously as he strode inside—it said simply  _Your smile radiates enough sunshine to make this dark basement glow._ Figuring it was one of his boyfriends who had passed by being cheesy he folded the small piece of paper and stuck it in his pocket. He sat at his desk and Cloud sat at the chair opposite it.

For the first time Genesis took a moment to actually study the intern. His hair was a bit silly but endearing, in a Zack-like way, and a rather lovely shade of yellow. His eyes were a brilliant blue and, despite his expression still being a tad unsavory, Genesis was struck again by how fetching the man was. While his hips had been rather bony his body was slender, with strong, broad shoulders and capable-looking arms underneath his neat button-up. Cute suspenders.

"How old are you?" he asked pleasantly, leaning back in his chair.

"Twenty-five."

"Mm. I am thirty-one."

The blond stayed silent. Whereas Genesis' worries about bags under his eyes had been unfounded the other was very clearly tired and exhausted; he looked like he was going to nod off right onto his desk. The older man steepled his fingers and looked at Cloud closely. Cloud met his gaze head-on.

"Zack asked me to watch over you while he was in a meeting. PR's are notoriously long, and I don't have enough busy work for you to do to take up the time. I also have a lot of my own work to get to before I can leave today, so frankly I don't feel like entertaining you until Zack is free again. I'm guessing that you have been dealing with Heidegger, Hojo, Scarlet—those types?"

"Yeah," Cloud grunted. "Zack found me this morning and took pity on me."

"That explains why you look so wrung out. I suggest you take a nap." He gestured at the small couch against the far wall. Because this was the basement and real estate was not nearly as precious as it was on the upper floors Genesis's office was the biggest out of his lovers'. Cloud did not need to know that that couch was there for sex, not random intern naps.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. They're paying you, yes?"

"Yeah. A little."

"Probably not enough. Just sleep. Free money."

Cloud looked like he was going to protest for a moment, but acquiesced and went back over to the couch. He awkwardly laid down on it, but after a moment stood back up and pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?" Genesis asked as the blond snapped a picture of the thing.

Cloud toed off his shoes and laid back down. The thing was too short for any of them—Angeal and Zack's feet in particular hung off the edges quite a bit—but it seemed a perfect length for Cloud, who gave a mighty stretch before tucking an arm behind his head. "Zack put me in charge of the twitter account," he answered as he tapped away on it with his free hand.

"And you're tweeting about my couch?"

"Um, yeah. It's very comfy."

"I know it is." The redhead left him alone after that and soon enough Cloud was asleep before long, no doubt wrinkling his work clothes. His mouth was open a bit and he twitched in his sleep as well. Genesis glanced away from his computer screen occasionally to ensure he was okay and a few times couldn't help smiling to himself. Endearing, pretty strangers could be surprisingly entertaining.

He left a few times to make runs to his scientists or video call other building employees but Cloud slept steadily on. A little over an hour after Cloud fell asleep Genesis got a message from Angeal:  _Sephiroth is on the warpath, and I think he's looking for that intern, Cloud? Zack texted me from his meeting and says he's with you. Not sure what to do. I'm coming over._

Genesis blinked at his phone, then at the sleeping man on his couch. "Oh dear."

* * *

For three March days in Midgar, the third of which was drizzly, Cloud's waking hours were excruciating.

His advisor at Midgar U had warned him that the turnover rate for internships at Shinra Electric and Power was unusually high. At the career center he read a testimony from a Senior who had attempted to work there but had quit because  _"this one guy, Heidegger, his laugh made me want to jump off the roof of the building!"_  Someone else had noted that most of the employees were almost definitely 'super villians,' and to make matters worse someone named Hojo had taken an interest in her and asked her endless questions about what she knew of her own genetic makeup.

Cloud had foolishly thought that he could withstand just about anything. His dreams of owning his own business—a small delivery business, actually—were very specific. Shinra seemed like one of the best and easiest ways to get him valuable experience and help him understand how businesses actually worked on a massive scale. He was older than the typical college student and incredibly stubborn. He doubted he would run into anything that could do him in.

After his first day Cloud very nearly threw in the towel. It wasn't that most of the employees were almost super villians, he found— _all_ of them were corrupt and evil for sure, no 'almosts' about it. Despite the position he applied for being quite specific he arrived and Lazard Deusericus, the man he was supposed to report to, was nowhere to be found. "He's on vacation, I think," someone passing in the hallway told him when he asked. As a result Cloud discovered ten minutes into his first shift that no one had anything for him to do.

He wandered the halls for a little while but soon he was snatched up by one of the two names he had heard before other than Lazard—Heidegger. The man was huge and his skin was reddened and rashy; with his strange green suit and massive beard he looked like a terrifying, fuzzy Christmas ornament.

Heidegger also seemed to hate interns. The purple badge on Cloud's chest meant Heidegger could order him around—and order him around he did, immediately requesting, of all things, a  _back rub_. By lunchtime his first day Cloud had ran across what felt like the entire building delivering messages and telling people Heidegger wanted to see them. Then a man named Palmer snatched his labor up and had him deliver endless cups of coffee to the entire Space department. He had not known that Shinra had plans to be  _the primary energy provider in space, tra la la!_ but now he was certain he knew almost everything there was to know about it.

There was no one to report to, and no one that cared. Once his eight hours were up Cloud awkwardly just left, and after struggling to stay awake through his evening class that started at eight, fell asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow back home.

On his second day Cloud spent two hours dully xeroxing copies of March's toilet magazine. The same piece of paper had to be taped to the back of the stall in every toilet in the building teaching restroom-goers about Shinra programming for the month and, in the 'Monthly Health Awareness Corner' in the literal bottom left corner of the flyer, how to identify the signs of a stroke.

It was horrible, repetitive, thankless work. Nobody acknowledged him—the purple badge made Cloud utterly invisible. There was a bathroom on every floor in the gaia-damn building, alternating women's, men's, and gender-neutral—and by the time he reached the very top floor late in the afternoon his legs were trembling, his arms ached and he felt dizzy. It was not hard to tape a piece of paper down, but when you did it over two-hundred times… Even when he awkwardly poked his head into the women's bathrooms no one gave him more than a passing glance.

It was a little surreal, actually.

On the third day Cloud stumbled into the lobby early in the morning. His entire body ached, and he had only slept an hour due to homework for his classes. He hadn't eaten since his twenty-minute rushed lunch in the middle of a hallway yesterday. People pushed past him on all sides; he was a nameless, insignificant gnat in this place. The others before him were right; he  _fucking_   _hated it here_. He raised his face to the ceiling like it was the heavens and sent out a wild prayer.

Someone tapped his shoulder.

An angel had answered them.

"Hey," said a man in a sharp black pinstriped suit. His tie was red and crooked, and so was his grin. "You look a little lost. You an intern?"

"Yeah," Cloud said, a bit dazed; his blood sugar was dangerously low and this guy was hot as fuck. He had never been so happy to see someone that wasn't Heidegger.

"Had a rough time of it, huh?"

"Yeah," Cloud repeated.

The man stuck his hands in his pockets. "Well, you wanna head upstairs with me? I might have something for you to help me with. I was talking with the last intern before they quit and they seemed pretty tormented."

Cloud just nodded, and the man laughed, his eyes curving up in happy little half-moons. Twenty minutes later he was seated across from the guy in his office upstairs. He was the Head of Public Relations, shockingly enough, and he offered Cloud a bottle of water.

"I'm so glad you found me," Cloud murmured, staring at his slightly-shaking fingers in his lap. "Heidegger is a piece of shit."

His head snapped up and he covered his mouth. Zack looked shocked too, and then he burst out laughing. "Damn!" he guffawed, "They really did a number on you, man." He smiled, as if fond, and gently smacked the table with his palm. "I've decided—I'm gonna protect you from all the weirdoes in this place. If anyone asks tell 'em you're assigned to help me out today, alright? They shouldn't bug you. If anyone does, tell 'em to gimme a call, and I'll sort it out."

"You are so nice. Seriously. Thanks, man."

"I can never resist a cute face in need." Zack winked at him, and Cloud stared, his brain taking a moment to properly process the flirt.

Zack continued, "I thought of something you could do. Two things, actually. One—our twitter account is inactive as hell because I'm too busy to update it and no one else in my fucking department seems to give a shit. Tweet whatever you want, I don't care. Just be clean and fun, use your judgment. All kinds of businesses are getting internet recognition for having fun twitter accounts—use the hashtags and all that shit. I can't be bothered. And it's not like we have that many followers anyway, and the ones we  _do_  have are our own employees." He relayed the login info and Cloud entered it in his phone. When finished he was ready to spread his adoration of Shinra to the world.

Or maybe his discontent.

"Number two. Would you mind delivering some messages for me? I'm not really sure what else to have you do, other than just sit here. And who doesn't like messages? Everyone will think I'm cute as hell, and you get to be the handsome courier. It all works out."

As into Zack as he was, and as hard as it was for Cloud to keep his eyes away from Zack's ass as he got up to grab some stationery from a filing cabinet, he wasn't sure if all this flirting-in-passing counted as harassment or not. Still better than rubbing Heidegger's back.

Zack wrote out three different letters on cute duck paper. They were folded, and he wrote who they were for in small print in the corner on the topmost side. "Don't read 'em, okay?" Zack said.

Cloud read them, of course.

The first went to one Sephiroth Crescent, head of Development. Zack had warned him that the guy needed his coffee early in the morning so he swiped a cup of the cheap shit on the way in from a lounge, though he took a few minutes in the small space to lean against the counter and send out his first few tweets—anything he could think of, really. He snapped a picture of one of the duck letters and sent that out to the world, too, smirking to himself at his lame electricity-themed puns. Zack had said he could tweet  _anything_ , after all. And what was Shinra going to do to him? Fire him? He was on the verge of storming out already.

When he arrived at the right office he dropped the sugar and creamer beside the cup on the desk and politely dropped off the letter. The man hardly even glanced at him, but Cloud was used to it now. He was  _gorgeous_ , though, that  _hair_ —and it seemed like he was about to get his ass pounded by his recent savior Zack, too. Lucky guy.

He would have guessed that Sephiroth was Zack's boyfriend, but then, on his way to one Angeal Hewley's office, he read the note intended for this guy. Zack had doodled little hearts and small stick versions of, he assumed, he and Angeal, holding hands. He chuckled to himself before folding it back up and knocking on the right door.

Angeal, as it turned out, was incredibly nice, and just as handsome as the other two. He thanked him for the letter and even invited Cloud to walk out with him, as he had to head down the hall to his mailbox.

"So how long have you been interning here?" Angeal asked as he opened his door.

"Only three days," Cloud started to say, but trailed off as a cart full of bagels crashed to the ground directly in front of them, scattering bread around their ankles. The attendant pushing it, who had swerved dramatically out of the way to avoid hitting Angeal Hewley as he came out of his office, began apologizing profusely. Angeal immediately crouched and began helping pick them up, so Cloud did the same.

After talking to the poor person and getting information about where they were going and what the bagels were for Cloud pulled out his phone for a tweet. That counted as noteworthy, didn't it? When finished Angeal continued on his way, tall and sturdy, unbuffeted by the swarms of people in businesswear. Cloud followed on his heels, happy to use him as a human shield. Angeal asked him about school and where he grew up and such. Cloud kept having to get in very close to speak into his ear due to the volume of the people around them, and he smelled very nice too, additionally having a warm, magnetic presence; Cloud was so exhausted he was tempted to give in to that pull and fall right against his chest. Maybe the guy wouldn't mind.

 _I've lost it,_ Cloud realized.

Angeal was so nice that the blond did not want to leave, but he eventually had to. With one letter left to deliver he departed for the office of one Genesis Rhapsodos, but much to his horror he ran into Heidegger on the way.

"Where have you been?" the man asked, his voice booming, "I've needed your help for the past hour!"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I've been given a task from Zack Fair. He said—"

"Fair?  _Gya ha ha ha!_ Public Relations hardly needs an intern's help! I'll tell you that my department is up to far more important things today." He started to list the things he wanted Cloud to do and the blond interrupted, insisting that Zack's errand was time-sensitive and he had to move along.

As it turned out, Heidegger did not like to be interrupted.

By the time he reached Genesis Rhapsodos's office he was a wreck, and trembling with pent-up rage. In hindsight he felt bad about breaking into the man's desk but after screaming in the middle of a crowded hallway at a giant green balloon of a man he just didn't  _give a fuck_ anymore. Considering the letter (because he peeked, of course) asked Genesis to 'babysit' him at one he probably shouldn't have been so rude, but Genesis invited him back. At any rate he had some caffeine in his system and was given another letter to deliver to Angeal Hewley, this time from Genesis.

The letter was just as bad as all of Zack's:

 _My dearest Angeal,_  
_I'm sending you a kiss via a courier. Cloud here has instructions to kiss you after you finish reading this, so pucker up._  
_Zack sent me a letter this morning and I figured that I would send you one as well, mostly because I feel shitty about the whole raccoon thing. I am sorry for carrying on so much this morning. (Here, you have an apology of mine in writing, so you can never say again that I never give them. Brat.) I was thinking about asking the boys over the night after tomorrow—it's been so long since the four of us all got together at once, and most of that is your fault, you big nuisance. Volunteering cuts into all of our date time. It's been about three weeks since the four of us fucked, because YOU are always at that damn flower shop? You owe me ice cream at that place on 7_ _th_ _._  
_Feel free to accept the offer of fucking from the courier boy too. (He is rather cute, isn't he? He has spunk. I've been missing a little spunk…day after tomorrow. I want it on my face.)_  
_See you at lunch,  
_ _Genesis ♥_

Cloud was rather alarmed but Angeal just chuckled to himself as he read the letter. Must have been a typical Genesis thing—he could sort of see it. He caught Angeal's eyes sweeping his form up and down just before Cloud left, though; the blond set his jaw and responded with an appreciative glance of his own. He now knew that the four of them were, what, dating?  _Involved_ with each other at any rate.

When he returned to Zack the man was all smiles. "How'd it go, Spike?"

"Fine," Cloud said, not quite sure how to convey all the strange encounters he'd had that day in ten words or less.

"You like 'em all okay? No one was mean to you?"

"No," Cloud denied, shaking his head, "They were all fine. Actually, Angeal is really nice—he talked to me for a while. Genesis let me use his card to buy myself a drink from downstairs."

Something on his face must have given him away because Zack grinned and wiggled close to him. His grin could only be described as shit-eating.

"You think they're  _cute_ ,  _don't you, Spike_?"

There was no way to act cool out of this so Cloud just shrugged. It didn't seem like Zack would get mad at him for admitting as much, and besides—he didn't know that Cloud had read the letters and knew all about his relationship with the other four. Cloud was capable of being a flirt of his own, however, and responded, "I've met a lot of really attractive people today."

Zack seemed to understand that his open-ended way of phrasing it meant he was included as well, and he winked at him. Cloud just hung out there until noon, talking to Zack about all kinds of things. Zack was 28 and had been working with Shinra since graduating college, rising through the bureaucratic ranks the fastest in its history. He was a PR whiz and seemed to honestly like the company, though he spent almost as much time shitting on it as Cloud did.

At noon he kicked Cloud out, saying he had a meeting. Cloud knew better, because he was going to have sex with the long-haired one, Sephiroth. A little jealous and unhappy that he was on his own again, he wandered around the building for an hour while idly tweeting anything he could think of. To his frustration Genesis was late for their one-o'clock meeting but he offered his couch for Cloud to sleep on.

The blond had never been so grateful in his entire life.

\- - - - - -  
Cloud woke up, an hour and a half later, to Angeal Hewley shaking his shoulder.

The blond grunted blearily and rolled onto his back. There was a red coat covering his body and it slid to the floor as Angeal hauled him to his feet, arms under his armpits. Cloud fell forward, dazed, and leaned against that strong chest like he had imagined earlier.

"Are you the one in charge of the twitter account, Cloud?" Angeal asked. He sounded frantic.

"Uh." The blond shook his head, making no move to right himself. "Yeah."

"Shit. I'm taking him, Gen. Sephiroth will be here in a minute, no doubt. He's mad."

"Um, okay," Genesis responded. He was standing nearby and looked bewildered. "You do that."

Angeal twined his fingers with Cloud's and pulled him from the room. He did not explain where they were going, and at the end of the hall yanked him into the stairwell. As the door closed Cloud glimpsed through an inch of glass a tall figure in black striding out of the just-opening elevator doors. Sephiroth looked  _pissed_.

At least his afternoon was exciting.

* * *

At 4am Angeal Hewley woke up to one of his boyfriends hissing in his ear, "Are you  _sure_ I can't light the damn thing on fire?"

"That would be cruel," he mumbled back, rolling over and pulling his pillow over his head.

As annoying as the raccoon—and Genesis, though he would not admit it out loud—had been, Angeal was the kind of man who handled crises quite well. He arrived at work as well-rested and content as he could have been, given the circumstances, and after kissing Genesis goodbye he headed to his office for what he thought was going to be an utterly average Midgar day.

Many times Sephiroth had complained about Angeal not spending enough money on him, or Zack had griped that Angeal was boring for never wanting to go out and eat, and Genesis had him as 'cheapskate' on his cell phone contact list, despite Angeal politely asking him to change it back for over a month now. The people at Shinra loved him, however; his tight-fisted ways had Shinra maximizing profit for five years now.

And he loved Shinra back. He adored his job, thriving on the stress of managing many of the finances of such a huge company. He adored working with his three loves so close by, adored being able to see them on his lunch breaks and in the hallways but in his bed back home as well. Sephiroth and Zack did not live with him and Genesis but everyone spent so much time at everyone else's place it hardly mattered.

On a drizzly day in March, one that boded well for the early bloomers in his garden that were already beginning to sprout, Angeal was reminded again of why he loved this whole work situation, with his boyfriends close by. Zack sent him a letter.

The letter was sent via one of the new interns, a frazzled-looking blond. He reminded Angeal of a poor, sleepy pup—or maybe a kitten, since Zack kind of took up all the 'puppy' space in his mind right now—and he took pity on him, asking the boy why he was here, what school he went to, and how things were going. He had heard the rumors of how badly the interns were treated in other departments, particularly Space Exploration, and he wanted the man's experience with Budget and Finance to be as wonderful as possible. After all, his department was honorable through and through; he would not stand for the corruption and violence that had plagued it before he took over a few years back, replacing Don Corneo. He had been funding a secret 'inn' for prostitution with money he stole from the company.

The intern, Cloud, seemed to appreciate the time he took to smile and chat with him, and that made Angeal feel good. When Cloud left Angeal did not think about him again for a while, turning his attention to his letter from Zack. Angeal missed him terribly, not having any time alone with the man in probably a week simply due to schedules, and the small drawings with hearts and smiles made his own heart beat a little faster and him smile like a doofus alone in his office.

 _Angeal_ , Zack had scribbled,  
_Hi, loverboy. I feel like I haven't seen you for more than just a few minutes at a time in so long. :( let's change this soon, okay? Are you free next week? There's a movie I wanna see. Let's go on a date, just the two of us. Seph and Gen are weird and prissy about movies anyway. It'll be fun! I'll even buy you a large soda so you can burp through the entire movie and annoy the whole theater like you did last time._ (Upon reading this Angeal brought a hand to his face in mortification.)  _Just lemme know.  
__Oh yeah. I forgot to say. This is Cloud. I probably don't need to tell YOU this but be nice to him, okay? I think Heidegger and Palmer have been bullying him. Naaah, I know you'll be kind to him. You big kind ol' teddy bear!_ There was a small doodle of a teddy bear in the margin.

 _Anyway, talk to you later. I have a meeting at one so I probably won't be around for lunch._  
_Love you!  
_ _Zack_

Angeal very carefully placed the letter on the corner of his desk, and found himself rereading it a few times over the next hour or so, finding himself just as charmed as he was the first time.

To his surprise Cloud returned with another letter, this time from Genesis. The note itself was…very Genesis, but he had to agree, the blond one had an irresistible sort of pretty face, and he was lean and long-limbed. His little suspenders and, to the critical sewer's eye, clearly-hemmed pants were cute. He could only hope that the blond hadn't read the note.

With the prospect of a movie date from Zack and a get-together with all of them organized on Genesis's end Angeal's heart was light and work was effortless until lunchtime. As much as Genesis had been getting on his last nerve earlier that day he was happy to see him now. He had apologized after all—and in writing, furthermore.

"'Spunk on your face,'" Angeal murmured against one soft cheek, wary of his salad-dressing breath, "I think I can do that."

"Hmph," was all Genesis replied.

Sephiroth came before long with that familiar just-fucked look on his face. He was always so  _smug_ about it, and it made something quiet and predatory in Angeal's blood rear its head in a way only Sephiroth could. Once Genesis left for his appointment—fifteen minutes late, actually, which earned him a stern look and a reproachful frown from Angeal—Sephiroth shifted over to him and sunk his hands into the other man's dark locks, his fingers tangling in it.

Angeal whispered against the other's mouth, "You had fun with Zack?"

"Mm." Sephiroth kissed him a few more times, then replaced his lips with a cherry tomato.

"You need to eat those," Angeal groused.

"Those are disgusting," Sephiroth deadpanned, as catty as always.

After their lunch breaks ended Angeal went back to his office, an ache in his chest pulsing slowly as he missed his boyfriends something  _fierce_. There were two pieces of paper waiting for him, slid under his door while he was out. One, written in red pen, read  _you're an inspiration to everyone on the floor. Thank you_ and the other said  _your beard is so cute! :) Sometimes I find myself thinking that I want to touch it._

That was…bizarre, and clearly not from any of his lovers, but he did not have very long to ponder it. He had his own work to do, and maybe half an hour after returning he got a text from Sephiroth.

_Have you seen our twitter account? What the hell is this?_

Frowning, he pulled up the page. The most recent tweet from forty-one minutes ago, along with a picture of Genesis's couch, was:

_@ShinraElec: Need a place to recharge your battery during your workday? Genesis Rhapsodos' couch receives an A re: comfiness. #ElectricityPuns #NoButReallyDon'tNapOnTheJob_

He snorted to himself as he read through some of the others, including:

 _@ShinraElec:_   _The amount of coffee these people drink is shocking. #ElectricityPuns_

_@ShinraElec: Did you know we had a Space Exploration department? Neither did this intern! Read more about it here: xxx-ShinraElectric .gaia/space_

_@ShinraElec: The letter-delivering Cupid is simply shocked by the beauty he has encountered today. Some of the people here are just electrifying. #ElectricityPuns_

_@ShinraElec: Does anyone else think Heidegger from marketing looks like a giant holiday ornament?_

One even mentioned him: @ _ShinraElec: Angeal Hewley's eyes are a lovely shade of... #electric blue._

He replied to Sephiroth with a wary,  _yeah, I see it. They're funny._

Instead of responding with another text Sephiroth called him. "They are  _not_ funny," he growled before Angeal could say hello.

"Uh. Why? Did something happen?"

"I can't leave my office," Sephiroth said, sounding distracted. "I need to find who is publishing these and make them delete them. Zack is usually the one in charge of this but he's in a meeting."

"You just made an electricity pun," Angeal supplied, chuckling.

His only answer was silence. "…Angeal," Sephiroth grunted after a moment, "I am going to strangle whoever posted that picture of Zack's letter to myself."

Angeal's smile fell. Sephiroth was evidently not fucking around. "Why is it such a big deal? I don't get why you're so worked up."

"There's someone at my door," Sephiroth said, sounding overwhelmed. "I have to go. I'll keep you updated."

After Sephiroth hung up on him Angeal stared at his phone, eyebrows raised, for a full twenty seconds. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. He scanned through the rest of the tweets. Just from what was being talked about he figured that the owner of the account was that blond intern from earlier—Zack was the one taking care of him, after all, and he had probably given him the task. From what he understood Zack was the only one who regularly tweeted from the Shinra account.

Sephiroth did indeed keep him updated, and those updates grew more and more sinister. First it was  _I can't believe this,_ then  _There is someone new at my door every minute. I may slam it shut on someone's hand soon,_ and then  _if someone else tells me my eyes are charming…_

Needless to say Angeal was bewildered. He attempted to get Sephiroth to explain but the silver-haired man was caught up in a storm, wherever he was, and replied to maybe two of them, instead choosing to give something of a live report of what was going on in Development upstairs.

Frustrated, Angeal texted Zack:  _Do you know where your intern is?_ Zack answered with  _Should be with Gen_.

Sephiroth confirmed as much on his own a minute later.  _I spoke with some people in the hallway. They said a blond intern has been wandering around tweeting things for most of the day. Judging by the most recent tweet, he's at Genesis's._

As soon as Angeal processed the message he bolted.

He sent Genesis a heads-up and ran for the elevator. As always, there was a long wait for the thing, and every passing second worried him further. Sephiroth was the type to attack first and belatedly ask questions while pretending he had done nothing wrong. He doubted that the man would go through on any threats of strangulation but Angeal felt it was his duty to stop any potential carnage, especially because he still had no idea what exactly was making Sephiroth act so irrationally. It could be an honest mistake. Cloud seemed very sweet and the tweets appeared innocuous enough.

He tapped his foot impatiently in the elevator on the way down, listening with one ear to the conversation behind him.

"I actually wrote him a letter and slid it under his door," one woman was gushing to her friends in the corner.

"No way. Did you sign your name?"

"No, of course not. His cubicle is right next to mine. If it went badly we would be awkward until one of us quits."

"Yeah, I get that. I wrote one to Lazard, but he's still on vacation…"

"Deusericus? His suits are always so cute…"

Angeal was relieved to discover that he had gotten to Genesis's office first. He knocked and Genesis let him in. The blond man was asleep on his couch, curled up, Genesis's coat covering him.

"What's going on?" Genesis asked, looking halfway amused and halfway concerned (as he usually did during a crisis). "Why is Seph mad at him?"

"No idea," Angeal muttered, and woke the intern up. "Are you the one in charge of the twitter account, Cloud?"

After receiving a shaky affirmative he pulled the blond from the room by the hand. They made it down the hall and into the stairwell just as Sephiroth burst out of the elevator doors, his hair flying behind him, looking like an angel of death.

"We're going up," Angeal said firmly, and dragged Cloud up a flight of stairs.

Surprisingly Cloud did not try to resist, and he sounded groggy. "Where are we going?"

"My office, I guess."

"Why is Sephiroth looking for me? What did I do? What is  _he_  going to do?"

"I honestly don't know." They entered the elevator from one floor above and rode it up to the thirty-third floor. Cloud stayed thankfully quiet until they got there, where Angeal realized that their fingers were still entwined. He let go, feeling a little strange, and locked his door.

He leant back against it, folded his arms, and frowned. "Sephiroth was saying something about the twitter account."

"Um…" Cloud looked overwhelmed. "Did I offend him somehow?"

"I don't see how you did. Wait—he specifically mentioned the letter you delivered to him. The one from Zack?"

Cloud tapped his chin. "Uh…yeah, I posted a picture of it this morning. Not the actual words or anything, just the letter sitting in my hand."

"Why would that make him so angry?" Angeal rubbed his forehead.

The two men sat in silence for a moment as they thought. "I'm sorry, Cloud," Angeal blurted after a minute. "I understand being an intern here has been rough on you so far. Sephiroth doesn't usually cause scenes like this. It's calm here."

"It's alright. Anything is better than being with Heidegger. And, honestly, I've had fun today, with Zack and Genesis."

"That's good." Angeal smiled at him, honestly apologetic, because Cloud seemed like a lovely guy, and Cloud hesitantly smiled back.

Harsh knocking at the door spooked both of them. "Angeal," came Sephiroth's voice on the other side of the door, "Let me in."

Angeal tried being quiet, motioning for Cloud to keep quiet with a finger to his lips.

"I know you're in there," the unamused voice continued.

The Head of Budget and Finance sighed. "How?"

"Where else would you go?"

"…I'm not letting you in until you explain, Sephiroth. Cloud here has done nothing to you."

To Angeal's horror he heard some tinkering from the other side of the door and then it opened. Sephiroth had a key, of  _course_ he did, because they had been dating for six years. Right. The silver-haired man bypassed Angeal like he wasn't there and marched over to Cloud, who stood up tall and stiff in challenge.

One of Sephiroth's hands bunched up in the front of Cloud's suit, crushing his cute little bowtie. He lifted Cloud up off the ground and into the air.

"You have caused me so much inconvenience today," Sephiroth growled, his eyes narrowed, spitting fire.

Angeal hurried over to intervene. Sephiroth, while thinner and leaner than he, had never lost in an arm wrestle to any of them. Instead of attempting to pull his arms away he went to Cloud's other side and settled his hands on the blond's hips, prepared to pull him away if Sephiroth got violent, maybe play tug-of-war with an intern. That would look good on the company's record.

To his surprise Cloud, though grunting and gasping at the constriction around his throat and shoulders, grabbed two fistfuls of Sephiroth's own suit. He yanked, hard, and the two of them pulled each other in close, snarling into each other's faces.

"I don't know what I did to you," Cloud grunted. "Stop being vague and dramatic so I can fix it."

Sephiroth just blinked at him, letting out a soft choke as his own as Cloud tightened his grip, still dangling in the air. The topmost button on Sephiroth's impeccably-pressed shirt popped off and rolled onto the floor.

Angeal wasn't quite sure who was preparing to throw who.

After an endless, tense minute of alpha-male glaring and baring teeth on both sides Sephiroth set Cloud on his feet. " _Please_  delete your picture of Zackary's letter to myself."

Cloud seemed uncowed. "Why? It was just a folded piece of paper."

Sephiroth seemed more than happy to explain. As he pulled it up on his phone he explained, "The only people that follow the company on twitter are Shinra employees. You said, 'Love is in the air at Shinra! We have a cupid in the halls tasked with delivering romantic notes this morning. Who makes your heart jolt?' Look." He turned his phone around and thrust it in Cloud's face, and then Angeal's.

"I don't get it." Angeal was doubtful.

Sephiroth zoomed in on the uppermost left corner of the paper. Zack had written 'SEPHIROTH' in small print on top of the note in order for Cloud to know whose was whose.

"Everyone in my department thinks that was a green-light for confessing their admiration and…affection for me." Sephiroth's voice was full of distaste. "I have gotten over fifteen letters today. Additionally, no one in Development has gotten any work done, because they are all too busy being  _cute_ with each other and sending their friends notes as well. All our interns have been running notes back and forth and I am so far behind in what I meant to accomplish today that—"

"Seph," Angeal interrupted gently, "You're rambling. Breathe, kitten."

Sephiroth's lips pressed together in a tight line and his eyes flickered away from Cloud's face to Angeal's at his hated nickname—it was those eyes of his, honestly—but it did the trick, shocking him out of his rant. He took a deep breath.

"Just delete it, please."

Cloud shrugged. "Sure. I forgot that your name was in the corner when I took the picture. Sorry."

"It's…okay," Sephiroth said after a moment. He watched as Cloud bent over his phone to delete the post. For the second time Angeal realized that he was touching the intern for much longer than necessary. He jerked his hands away from their comfortable spot on Cloud's hips like the younger man had shocked him. Sephiroth glanced at him, his eyebrows bunched together; he had noticed, evidently.

"When did you find time to tweet 'Worst part of napping at Shinra? You're sure to get jolted awake'?"

"Um, when Angeal was bringing me here," Cloud murmured, clearly distracted. He showed them his phone—the tweet of the note had gotten a flurry of responses and mentions, and all from employees who had apparently given letters to their friends or incestuous co-worker crushes.

"Now that I think about it, I got a few of these earlier. They were under my door."

"You're lucky everyone in Budget is too cheap to own a phone. News didn't spread as much here as it did upstairs."

"Sephiroth," Angeal berated.

The silver-haired man ignored that, then turned to Cloud, his gaze sharp. "Your name is Cloud?"

"Cloud Strife. You're Sephiroth C-something?"

"Crescent."

"You really got that many love letters?"

"Yes. Most of them were not actively seeking to pursue me, because it is common knowledge that I am attached to the other two and  _this one_ " –he rolled his eyes at Angeal– "but everyone felt free to confess their…crushes." He looked stymied. "It is not fun to realize that a tenth of your department has a crush on you, Cloud."

"No, I guess not."

The two delved into conversation, Cloud moseying over to Sephiroth's side like they hadn't been about to throw down a few minutes previous.

Angeal watched them, hands on his hips, then snapped a picture of the two of them and sent it to Genesis:  _I think the intern has been adopted._

He let out a tense breath of air, blowing his bangs away from his own forehead. It was a good thing he was so good at handling a crisis, because otherwise, where would they all be? In jail for beating up the exploited labor, that's what. And that was a bit more of a headache than a pesky raccoon.

* * *

On a regular March morning, a little too drizzly for Zack's tastes, he was sitting on the toilet at his place of work when he got a simple text from one his beloved boyfriends:  _Good morning._

And it was. Zack had a lovely morning, actually. Despite the dampness outside he woke up well-rested in his single apartment and made himself breakfast for once, nodding his head along to the radio as he did so. He had not had much luck trying to sell the apartment, so he was stuck there—but once the lease ran out he planned to move in permanently with Sephiroth, and he couldn't wait.

Ahh,  _Sephiroth_. It had been some time since Zack had spent any quality time with him—maybe a few days, but man, even that was  _hard_ sometimes—and he missed him. He missed Angeal more, because the guy was always so damn hard to get ahold of, with his good Samaritan volunteering and shit, but something about the way the small raindrops were falling against his windshield and the greyness of the thick cloud cover made him think 'Seph' that day. That text he received on the can sent these feelings into overdrive.

On the way to the elevator he nearly ran into a blond man who was stopped dead in the middle of the hectic floor, disrupting traffic. He glared at him, about to snap something about messing everybody else up, but something about the way the guy was standing and holding himself made him bite his tongue.

He was shorter than he, and wore one of the standard-issue Shinra lanyards all the noobies wore around his neck. He was staring at the ceiling, his eyes almost all the way closed, spikes of yellow hair framing a defined jaw and a slender neck.

He looked fucking miserable.

Zack Fair did most things on impulse, and it rarely let him down. He reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey. You look a little lost. You an intern?"

Bright blue eyes fixed on him, but they were a bit unfocused. "Yeah."

"Had a rough time of it, huh?"

"Yeah."

Zack's good heart, feeling bad about how out-of-sorts the guy was but not above noticing that the man was ten kinds of cute, made him decide  _well, hey, fuck it._

"Well, you wanna head upstairs with me? I might have something for you to help me with. I was talking with the last intern before they quit and they seemed pretty tormented."

There was something incredibly satisfying about taking care of someone. He brought the blond upstairs—Cloud Strife, he discovered on the way—and gave him some water. He announced with a laugh that he was going to protect him and Cloud's face shone with gratefulness. He thanked him.

Before he could try to hold it in he blurted, "I can never resist a cute face in need." Cloud blinked but his face instantly flushed with color, a good sign, so he followed it up with a wink. Ahh, he loved flirting.

"Anyway," he continued, "I thought of something you could do. Two things, actually."

The twitter account needed someone other than him to take care of it. Cloud accepted his new responsibility amicably. "Number two," he said, "Would you mind delivering some messages for me?"

It was something he came up with on the spot but the more he thought about it it seemed like a good idea. It was a small, but cute gesture; the other three would appreciate it. "Don't read 'em, okay?" he asked—more like ordered—and the intern left.

If he was meeting Seph for a fuck at noon before his meeting at one it meant that he had less time to actually read the stuff he was supposed to for said meeting. With his office empty again he buckled down and focused on getting his work done. When Cloud returned, messages delivered, Zack was done and they shot the shit until he shooed the blond away for a 'meeting.' Kid didn't know any better.

Sephiroth seemed happy to see him. "Hey, you," Zack greeted when he came in his door. He pointed two fingers at the front of his pants. "I hope you're ready to hop on this  _diiick_."

"I will leave," Sephiroth replied dully, opening the door again. "I will leave if you ever say something like that to me again."

"Seeeph," Zack whined, clasping his hands together and looking apologetic. "I'm so sorry. Come back in."

His boyfriend, as it turned out, was indeed ready to hop on that dick. When Zack left for his meeting at one he was feeling great, even though he was slightly bummed that the other three were going to have a cozy lunch together without him. Meetings about the company's image were always long and arduous, because the President of the company was very specific about how Shinra should be portrayed. In the second half of his meeting Zack started receiving texts, and it took a full hour, his stomach churning unpleasantly, before there was a slight lull and he was able to step out into the hallway for a moment to take a look.

He had four from Sephiroth.  _What the hell is happening with the twitter account?_ was the first. Then,  _I need to talk to you._ And  _Dammit you are in a meeting._ Lastly,  _When you get out of your meeting we need to talk._

His phone buzzed as he was standing there with a message from Angeal.  _Do you know where your intern is?_

 _Should be with Gen_ , he answered.

Someone opened the door to the conference room and shot him a questioning look. Zack winced and held up a finger. There was no time to see what was up so he told Seph to calm down and that he'd see him later. A quick glance at the ShinRa twitter didn't show anything unusual; it seemed Cloud was doing his job, wherever he was.

The rest of the meeting passed excruciatingly slowly. He tapped his feet anxiously, worried about his boyfriends. The President of the company himself decided to drop by, extending it another hour. As distracted as Zack was he did what he had to do with efficiency. It was not a fluke he was the head of Public Relations—and overseeing over a hundred employees in his department—at his age. Shinra was the type of place that thrived on bloodshed besides; he couldn't expose his throat.

He emerged from the conference room at 5:45, just before he had to go home. He had to run to his secretary and relay some info, then grabbed his shit from his office. There were a few folded letters that had been slid under his door in his absence, and he haphazardly scooped them into his briefcase, making a note to read them when he got the chance . He called Sephiroth.

"Where are you guys?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," the man replied pleasantly. "Quite alright. We're waiting for you in the lobby. Hurry your ass up, we want to go home."

Cloud's stuff had been removed from his office so he maybe thought that the man would be with the others, since they had evidently been looking for him. That was not the case.

"Hey guys," he puffed, hurrying over to them when he got out of the elevator. "You all okay?"

Genesis nodded and held out his hand expectantly. Zack took it, and the four left the building.

"What the hell happened?"

"I got rather angry at Cloud and sought him out. The misunderstanding has been resolved."

"You hunted him down, Seph. I was terrified for him."

"…I was very angry."

"But why?" Zack asked, frustration creeping into his voice. "Come on, guys. I was stuck in that meeting with all those texts and worried my  _ass_ off about you all. Don't leave me in the dark."

The other three apologized, looking surprised.

"We should have let you know once we figured it all out," Genesis murmured, and kissed his cheek. "Sorry, dearest."

"After lunchtime I started receiving letters from coworkers," Sephiroth began. "Mostly of a vaguely romantic sort. Confessing…" His face twisted. "Crushes."

Zack's eyebrows raised. "That must have been awkward for you."

"Yeah," the man responded, dropping his eyes to the dirty Midgar sidewalk. Sephiroth still got uncomfortable and closed-off if one of his lovers gushed too much about their affection; Zack could understand how that could be tough for him.

"And Cloud comes into this how?"

"He tweeted a picture of your letter to Seph. His name was in the corner, so everyone thought that meant it was okay to send more to him, and each other."

"Did you guys get any?"

"Of course," Genesis sniffed. Zack didn't ask how many, because knowing Genesis he would turn it into a competition and ultimately feel inferior to Sephiroth, resulting in a bad mood all evening. The four men stopped at a restaurant so they could spend some time together before all going home.

Zack apologized on Cloud's behalf, but Sephiroth wouldn't hear it. "He and I are fine," he assured. "He deleted the tweet."

"Yeah, after you manhandled him."

The story was almost comical. Angeal hightailed it through the building with Cloud, Sephiroth showed up at his office, and the two growled at each other before Sephiroth said 'please' and Cloud deleted it.

"What happened after that?"

The other three looked confused for a moment.

"I…really don't know," Angeal said eventually, squinting. "We started talking, and then Genesis was there, and we kept talking until six when he left."

Zack raised his eyebrows again.

"I had work to do," protested Genesis feebly, "But I was concerned, so I went to check up on them, and… I never left."

The three men laughed amongst themselves and Zack pouted, feeling left out. "Stupid meetings."

"Aw." Genesis's lips turned down in a frown. "You didn't miss much. We just…talked to him."

"I like Cloud," Sephiroth declared, digging into his meal with gusto.

"Me too," Genesis agreed, and Angeal followed up with an, "As do I."

Zack narrowed his eyes for a moment. "…Yeah, he's pretty great. Really funny."

"I love his tweets."

"And that story about his kleptomaniac college friend."

"Haha, that's right. And he was calling you 'Seph,' did you notice?"

"Of course I noticed. I don't mind."

Zack thoughtfully listened to them discuss their afternoon with Cloud Strife. Eventually conversation shifted, but it was late enough that Zack was surprised by how much of an impression the intern had made on them. After their meal they split up—Angeal and Genesis to their place, and Sephiroth and Zack to their own apartments.

"I can't wait 'till I live with you," Zack whined as they parted, his bottom lip stuck out in a pout. Sephiroth kissed it.

"Nor I," he murmured. "Go to bed early tonight. You look exhausted."

"I am." Zack leant against his boyfriend for a moment. "…Alright. Night, Seph."

"Good night, Zackary."

When Zack arrived at work the next morning he was pleased to find Lazard Deusericus in the elevator with him.

"Nice tan," Zack quipped, hiding his grin.

Lazard, bless him, blushed and his face contorted in a grimace. "Costa del Sol was gorgeous, but I fell asleep on the beach with my sunglasses on."

"You look kind of like a superhero. With the eye-mask and all." Lazard just sighed and Zack chuckled. "You can fight Heidegger. Good to have you back with us."

Genesis sent a message to all of them in a group text once he got to his floor.

_Gen: feel free to have cloud deliver more love letters today. I enjoyed that_

_Seph: Just no pictures. Good morninf._

_Seph: Morning.*_

_Gen: It's a horrible morning. Angeal failed to subdue the raccoon_

_Cheap-o: I don't want to hear it. But really, have Cloud send more letters. I have the two I got yesterday on my desk. :-)_

"Aww," Zack cooed out loud.  _Will do_ , he told them.

Because he spent half of his day yesterday in that Gaia-damned meeting his secretary, Kunsel, had a grimace and a stack of papers waiting for him. "Sorry Zack," he sighed, and they shared a few seconds of quiet misery. It took some time for Zack to catch up on what he'd missed the day before but he kept a slice of his attention fixed on the door. It was now fifteen minutes after when he had brought Cloud to his office the day before. He didn't blame the kid for being a little late, especially because he didn't have much real work to do.

As he powered through emails he became more aware of time ticking past, and at forty minutes after Cloud's expected arrival time he paused.

 _Cloud didn't show up,_ he sent out.

The three others responded with some kind of a negative response. Zack himself felt inexplicably disappointed. He stuck his head out into the hallway. "Hey Kunsel," he prompted, stopping in the small office beside him. "You see that intern around, the one from yesterday that I was with?"

"Uhh…" Kunsel blanked, and he was showing visibly the signs of being as swamped with work as he. "No?"

Zack frowned and sat back at his desk. His gut clenched uncomfortably for a moment as he wondered if his new acquaintance had quit. He had been unable to see Cloud off the day before but the others had. It was possible that the blond was wandering the building while looking for something to do, perhaps snatched up by Heidegger again, but Zack doubted it. Cloud had the good sense, and a good enough experience the day before, to return to him for a new set of tasks.

Quitting seemed like the obvious answer, and Zack knew that his lovers would be upset. At the restaurant they had not been able to shut up about him. In those long hours where he was trapped in that meeting some small crushes were born, it was plain, even if Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth had not said (or even yet realized) as much.

He wasn't really surprised, just doubly disappointed that he had been stuck with the President and the other folks at all.

 _We haven't seen him,_ he reported,  _He probably quit. Sorry guys._

Angeal and Genesis replied unhappily but Sephiroth advised they check the twitter account. The most recent tweet was from thirteen minutes previous.

_@ShinRaElec: On Fridays we wear bibs. The topmost Execs here get lobster brunch on Fridays! The snacks in the lobby vending machine cannot compare._

"Well, he's definitely here," Zack murmured aloud, and felt stung for a second. What was up?

_Gen: They get lobster every week!? If it wasn't for me shinra would be obsolete in a heartbeat, where's my fucking lobster!? :(((((_

The first tweet of the morning held some identifying information.

_@ShinRaElec: Note to everybody. Be careful about falling asleep in the sun. You can get burnt (or get hilariously terrible tan lines). Natural #Energy is a powerful thing!_

_He's with Lazard,_ he sent the others. Cloud had said something yesterday about Deusericus being his actual supervisor. Made sense.

Because he had so much work to do it took him until almost lunchtime before he could spare twenty minutes to go find the intern. Lazard, the Director of HR, managed every single employee. He'd sent Zack a few angry emails about payroll before, but they were on friendly terms. Zack hopped the elevator to the right floor and almost walked right by Cloud, who entered the lift as he exited.

"Hey!" he yelped and turned around.

Cloud's smile wiped away any lingering worry about why he had not appeared. "Hey Zack," he greeted, his voice warm, shifting close to him in the small space. In his arms were boxes of files.

"Spike," Zack grinned, "I came looking for you. You hangin' in there?"

"Yeah. Lazard finally came back today. Sorry I didn't stop by. I was going to try to find you during my lunch break."

"Ah, s'okay." Zack fell quiet as he followed him out on the floor Cloud was visiting. "I thought you quit for a moment, heh."

"No way." Cloud elbowed him. "Well. Maybe if I hadn't met you guys yesterday. I could be asleep right now."

Zack smiled gently. "But you're still with us. I heard all about what happened. Sorry."

Cloud just shrugged. "It's really okay. I had a lot of fun afterward. They're great."

It was hilarious hearing the story from Cloud's point of view. Zack couldn't stay, however, and they split up after making arrangements to see each other during lunch.

The others were ecstatic when Cloud knocked on Genesis' door, lunchbox in hand. The five of them sat on the couch and chairs—Genesis with his shins on Sephiroth's lap, pestering him about something—and got caught up.

"They wouldn't stop talking about you yesterday," Zack divulged, and winked at Cloud when he looked embarrassed.

"It was a pretty good story. Sephiroth, being the brute he usually is, with dashing Angeal to the rescue…"

"And you sitting in your office for half an hour playing Chocobo Racing on your phone before you came to investigate. An excellent story."

Cloud seemed amused. "Dashing rescuers aside, I didn't need it."

"No, you didn't," Sephiroth agreed. Zack kicked his feet, saying he wanted to see, and Cloud demonstrated. He put down his sandwich and hauled Sephiroth unceremoniously out of his seat, displacing Genesis. The intern's face was red with effort but he smirked, encouraged by Zack's hollers.

"That was sexy," the dark-haired man growled, running his hands down his thighs, and Cloud looked endearingly embarrassed again.

The blond's lunch break ended before theirs and he left to assertions from the others that they would see him soon.

"I like him," Sephiroth said again as soon as he was gone.

"Mm," Angeal agreed with a small, soft smile still lingering on his features.

There was too much to do the rest of the afternoon for Zack to get away, but he did find ten minutes to write another note. He folded it up neatly in quarters and gave it to Kunsel.

"I'm sorry to ask you to do this, but can you bring it to Cloud Strife? He should be near Lazard."

His secretary looked vaguely annoyed but acquiesced. Zack chewed his lip as he reviewed performance notes and annotated a powerpoint for a meeting on Monday. He was not sure how Cloud was going to respond his note but he did so quickly. He arrived at his door looking out of breath.

Cloud came inside and reached into his pocket. "I'm the bottom of the food chain here," he explained. "So I couldn't get a messenger." He held out the ducky piece of paper, where on the other side he had scribbled  _Yeah, that sounds great_. On the other side Zack had drawn cartoon faces of Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal and himself in the margin, and Cloud added his own likeness beside them.

Zack looked up, his mouth dry. "Awesome," he managed.

Cloud nodded. "…I," he began, but that was all he said.

"I have a shitload of work to do," Zack sighed, wincing at the bluntness of his dismissal. "So sorry, Spike."

"No, that's okay. I told Lazard I was going to the bathroom." Cloud put the note down on the desk but seemed to think better of it and put it back in his pocket.

"…You should go. I might ask you to kiss me or somethin' if you hang around too much longer."

"Ah." Cloud smiled, Zack laughed, and the two chuckled at each other from across the office. "I'm gone. Sunday, though."

"Yeah. Sunday. Text me, okay?"

"Mm. Bye, Zack."

"See ya, Spike."

Zack took out his phone and almost informed the others, but decided better of it and stuck to his original plan. He hummed to himself and checked his schedule for the next week. The weekend looked like it was going to be fantastic, and there were only a few meetings the next week. Not a drizzly day in the forecast whatsoever.

* * *

_Dear Cloud (aka Spike)_

_The others don't know I'm sending you this, so don't give away the surprise too soon. They're lucky they have me, magical all-knowing wizard that I am. It's pretty obvious that Gen, Seph and Angeal really like you. They said you're cute. Those three don't know what's best for them and I know they're too shy to ask properly anyway, so I'm taking the initiative here and inviting you to hang out with us on Sunday. Sorry for the weird day, but Genesis has some sex fest or something planned for tomorrow. So—Sunday! Come on by. We'll cook you food and get to know you a little better. You're a cool guy Cloud._  
_If a date with four guys isn't your thing that's totally cool. We won't be too upset, we get it. But if you're interested, text me and we'll set it up. My number is XX-XXX-X-XXXX._  
_Affectionately (and hopefully) yours,  
_ _Zack_

* * *

_@ShinRaElec: This Friday ended on an excellent note. We hope yours does as well. Every day is a good one with clean, responsible, efficient energy._

_@ShinRaElec: Sparks flew. Hearts jumped. Electricity was in the air this weekend. How many puns can we fit here? Welcome back, and happy Monday._


End file.
